I research, write about innovation, privacy and reputation via my books and articles, and work on it with clients as president of Arcadia, a communications research, design & delivery lab focused on today's most important, cutting-edge issues. I have 30+ years of professional experience working at big ad/PR agencies and at major brands, and I'm a Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

The Contest Myth

Consumer interest in the endless music competition shows on TV seems to be waning, but the premise behind them is still a driving force in our commerce and culture. I call it The Contest Myth, and it carries with it significant opportunities and risks for marketers.

The central tenet of the Myth is that anyone has not only the right to do whatever they want in life, but possesses the inherent talent and skills required to realize it. All anybody needs is a chance.

We see it played out via contests on TV, as people vie to be dubbed rock stars, top models, makeup artists on the next blockbuster horror flick, startup entrepreneurs, renowned chefs, or happily married couples. Someone with no particular training, skill or emotional well-being could tee-up the next great talent or relationship, if only given the chance.

The problem is that self-taught nuclear physicists on YouTube are rare , and nobody wants to undergo surgery by someone who gained their training via online chat. Sure, there might be a one in a million chance that a retail sales clerk has the singing voice of an angel, but those 999,999 other clerks sound best in the shower, or in the privacy of a car. It’s possible to fall truly in love during the specific season of a TV show, but it’s not likely. And, though I have an idea on how to disrupt the world with an online site that I can’t reveal right now, I think more about the yacht I’d buy than actually doing the work necessary to afford it.

But the Myth has us all believing that all we need is a chance.

I wonder. The Contest Myth is a powerful, lasting meme that we’re going to see in other entertainment content long after the music competitions are. It’s also a useful tool for marketers, since playing to it affirms consumers’ happiest desires, and lets them sell products and services that provide the simulacra of success consumers would have had to work toward once upon a time. Technology and social tools succeed, in part, because they enable people to promote themselves to their imagined fans on the Internet. YouTube videos promote rags-to-riches dreams that are as simple to embrace as they are impossible to replicate. There’s a lot to buy and consume as we wait for our chance to be discovered.

Now, I believe that all of us have an inherent right to feel special and pursue happiness, but the reality is that few individuals will actually run artisan bakeries or Internet startups. The world doesn’t need another pop singer who expertly mimics the singers played on the radio. The prevalence of The Contest Myth substitutes the reliability of time, work and accomplishment with a lottery that few people will ever win.

Most artists will make little to no money, irrespective of their count of online likes, and that’s after years of training and effort added to inherent gifts or skills. Most people will work at large businesses, doing real jobs require practice, patience, and perseverance, not flashes of insight or expressions of personality. Yet a lot of marketing puts forth rare exceptions instead – you know, the guy running his custom bicycle shop using his trusty credit card branded for entrepreneurs – as if it were the rule.

Maybe it already does, considering the prevalence of distrust for any speech that is overtly commercial, as if consumers are aware that they’re being lied to, generally. Brands are having trouble maintaining premium pricing, so maybe all of that glorious social engagement that tells consumers that they’re exceptions to the rules, not its victims, isn’t beneficial after all. Maybe people know that they might never have their lives affirmed by American Idol or whatever. Maybe the simplicity and maker movements evidence a newfound sense of true self-reliance (if not self-awareness, too) among consumers who’re acting on that realization.

We’re in trouble if the rest of them figure out that waiting to be discovered was a fool’s errand or, in the reality of a real contest, their dreams didn’t prepare them to win anything.

What’s really interesting that the unique individuals who actually win the various contests of life – like successful entrepreneurs, self-supporting artists and happily married couples – don’t usually buy the Myth or its commercialized trappings. They’re too busy competing every hour of every day to achieve something real. They don’t look or act like stereotypical contestants, and are likely to blame nothing for their accomplishments or failures other than themselves.

Therefore, the marketing challenge is also an opportunity. We know what actual winners have to do, and we also know that life offers endless “little” wins in lieu of those rare “big” ones. We could choose to use our brands to communicate that reality – in the most creative, compelling ways possible – instead of perpetuating the Myth.

As Nike’s marketers once said, Just Do It. Some myths actually get better when they’re made real. Helping consumers figure this out might now only help them, but it might be the smartest thing for our brands’ sustainability. And that’s the contest that should really matter to us.

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